Afghanistan and Pakistan were scrambling Wednesday to rush aid to survivors of this week's 7.5-magnitude earthquake as the region's overall death toll from the temblor rose to 385.

Pakistan's disaster management authority said the nation's death toll was now at 267, with 220 people killed in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and another 47 elsewhere in the country. Afghanistan has reported 115 dead and 556 wounded, while three people died on the Indian side of the disputed region of Kashmir.

Aid workers have warned that thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis who became homeless by the earthquake could die from exposure, the BBC reported yesterday. It added that there is an urgent need for tents and blankets for those who are spending freezing nights outdoors, citing aid workers.

The head of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, Wais Ahmad Barmak, told parliament that 7,630 homes had been destroyed and around 1,000 animals killed. In battered northwestern Pakistan, more than 10,000 homes were damaged as well as 147 schools, officials said. According to Pakistan's disaster management authority, the quake damaged 10,586 houses in the country's northwest, adding that it had distributed 15,519 tents, 25,700 blankets and tons of food. Further supplies would be delivered to remote areas once roads are cleared and reopened.

In Shangla, Pakistan's worst-hit town, Zurqun Nain, 70, said his extended family was living at a relative's home after the quake damaged his house. "I had my own home before the earthquake. Now I am homeless at this old age," he said.

The quake, which struck Monday, was centered in Afghanistan's sparsely populated Badakhshan province on the border with Pakistan, Tajikistan and China. The poverty-stricken region is vast, with mountains and valleys that make it difficult to reach affected areas. The Taliban are active in some parts, further complicating access, Barmak said.

Survey teams have been sent to assess casualties and damage in areas that can be reached only on foot or by donkey. Once the information they bring back has been assessed, food and non-food supplies will be delivered, Barmak said.

The BBC also reported that children are especially vulnerable to the risk of succumbing to the extreme cold. UNICEF said on Tuesday that extreme conditions and insecurity cut off communities from aid. "We are extremely concerned for the safety and wellbeing of children, who are already the most at risk in any disaster and are now in danger of succumbing to the elements as temperatures plummet," said Karin Hulshof, UNICEF regional director for South Asia. The statement also said remote, mountainous areas affected by the earthquake have been hit by heavy rain and snow.

Meanwhile, funerals for victims continued yesterday, and in Shangla, residents demanded government help rebuild their homes. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the northwestern city of Peshawar yesterday to attend a briefing on quake damages. In televised comments he pledged his government would provide "maximum compensation" to the victims. "We are going to start the provision of compensation to those whose homes were damaged," he said, adding that 200,000 rupees ($1,899) would be given to each person to rebuild their homes.

A 7.6-magnitude quake hit Pakistan on Oct. 8, 2005, killing more than 80,000 people and leaving more than 3 million homeless, most of them in the northwest of the country and in the divided region of Kashmir. Nepal also suffered twin quakes in April this year, recorded as its worst quake, triggering landslides and destroying 500,000 homes, leaving thousands in need of food, clean water and shelter.